Publishers on the web create contents for their audience's consumption. And among the greatest way to have an engaging content, is by allowing the audience to comment on it.
With that strategy, media companies can reach a larger audience, which in turn will attract more advertising revenue. With this strong commercial imperative driving them, there is no doubt that media companies expect more and more comments from their audience.
However, bad things can happen by allowing people to comment. For example, defamatory comments can create damage. People's comments can also spread fake news and misinformation, and also provoke others. After all, people have different opinions, and because of that different thoughts can be shared.
In Australia, the government has passed a rule, which can make publishers be held responsible for comments their readers leave on their Facebook Pages.
According to the Australian High Court, this is because comments can have far-reaching consequences for social media users throughout Australia. The case focused on Facebook only, but the implications are not Facebook-specific. For example, it can apply to Instagram or Twitter, or other social media networks, or even websites that have a comment section.
What this rule means, anyone who runs a social media page can theoretically be sued over disparaging comments posted by readers or random group members, even when the publishers themselves aren’t aware of the comment.
The term "publishers" can be people or companies whose business or work is publishing. And when it involves the internet, publishers can publish works that include and not limited to: written articles, videos, e-books, software, and more.
And in this case, publishers are those who create contents, and encourage or invite others to comment on them.
With the rule, those people can be held responsible for the comments because they are also legally considered the "publishers" of the comments.
This decision follows former Don Dale Youth Detention Centre inmate Dylan Voller.
He sued three media companies (The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and Sky News) who published stories about him on their Facebook Pages, who have readers left comments beneath the posts. He launched the defamation action at the New South Wales Supreme Court against the companies.
The media stories were not defamatory but Voller alleged that some of those readers' comments were, so he sued.
Voller didn't sue the commenters, as he sued the media outlets, arguing they were “publishers” of the comments.
It was in 2019, that the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled in Voller’s favor. Five judges ruled in and two dissented.
The court found that, by creating a public Facebook Page and posting content, the outlets facilitate, encourage and thereby assist the publication of comments from third-party Facebook users, and they were, therefore, publishers of those comments.
The decision quickly received backlash among publishers, many of which deal with countless of comments on their social media accounts and website, every single day. For this reason, a number of media publishers are appealing to the High Court.
Born in 1997, Dylan Voller is an Aboriginal-Australian man.
His received his first major public attention when his detainment in a youth detention center in the Northern Territory was documented in 2016, at an episode of the ABC TV program Four Corners.
Voller has experienced a troubled past. First, he had been expelled from primary schools in Alice Springs due to him assaulting other students. He was then sent, and also released from a number of juvenile detention centers since he was just 11 years old. The crimes include car theft, robbery and assault.
When he reached adulthood, his crime spree continued.
in the end, he has been involved in more than 200 prison incidents, including cases of self harm and endangering a police officer.
His record-breaking crime forced the authorities to restrain him by the neck. Voller was also isolated, stripped, tear gassed, and more.
